Welcome to my story! Needless to say, I own nothing but my OCs and the plot. I wrote the first chapter some two and a half years ago and recently picked up from there. I will try to update as regularly as possible. That said, I hope you enjoy and it'll be awesome if you decide to leave me some feedback :)
Marta had expected the pre-exam panic. She had even thought it would come right when the exam schedule had been posted. Now she kind of wished it had – she could have handled it by now. But no, it just had to take over her the night before her OWLs began, didn't it. The exam period started with the Charms OWL, so naturally Marta was revising the spells that were most likely to crop up on the exam, as well as doing some additional revision for Arithmancy, although it was one of the last OWLs in the schedule.
In spite of having practiced every Charms spell studied this year a hundred times over the last month and dedicated at least two hours each day to solving Arithmantic problems, Marta still didn't feel quite prepared. Oh, alright, she knew that there was no way she was getting anything less than Exceeding Expectations on any of her OWLs, but that was hardly the point. The point, ever since she had enrolled in Hogwarts, was to beat her sister's academic results, whatever the cost. She just had to pass all of her exams with Outstanding, otherwise she'd feel like five years' worth of endless hours spent studying would have been futile.
3 AM, Marta was still rereading her Arithmancy notes, parchment after parchment of complicated formulae and solutions, while finishing her fourth cup of coffee. No, she was pretty sure she didn't need sleep. The more she revised, the more secure she felt. She was sitting in a cozy armchair near the crackling fire in the now completely deserted Common Room, determinedly going over the material for what felt like the thousandth time. Now she thought about it, she'd better settle into another armchair, one that wasn't so close to the fire – the crackling of the flames made her drowsy. Just as she was about to move, the portrait hole opened to admit a tall boy with immaculate raven black hair and stormy gray eyes. She recognized him as the sixth-year Sirius Black, troublemaker extraordinaire.
"Hey there," Sirius smirked when he noticed her. "Last minute revision?'
"It's not last minute, I've been revising for two months," frowned Marta. "I just don't feel like sleeping."
Sirius raised his eyebrows, clearly thinking "yeah right, and I'm the Tooth Fairy," but decided against saying it out loud.
"What about you?" asked Marta indignantly.
Sirius beamed at her innocently. "What about me?"
"How come you get away with wondering through the grounds in the middle of the night?"
Sirius shrugged and headed towards the boys' dormitories.
"Fine, don't tell me," muttered Marta, switching her gaze to the parchments sprawled all over the table. "Not like I care anyway…"
"Marta!" Emmeline gasped as she entered the Common Room and saw her friend curled up in the big armchair next to the fire, clutching an already extremely wrinkled parchment in her left hand.
The Common Room was still relatively empty, since it was 7.30 AM. Only a few people were awake, half of them nervous fifth-years quietly practicing Charms spells, the apprehension clear on their faces. Nobody had bothered to wake up the pale girl that seemed to have fallen asleep on one of the armchairs.
"Marta," Em shook her gently. "God, why didn't you listen to me, you should have gone to bed early… All that nine-Outstanding-OWLs crap… Just not worth it, take my word for it… Marta, wake up!"
Marta stirred and opened her eyes. She took in Emmeline's sky blue stare, the morning light, and the muffled voices, and realization dawned on her.
"Bloody hell," she groaned. So the coffee had not been as effective as she'd hoped.
Marta stood up and only then did she realize that there was something in her left hand. She let go of the crumpled parchment with an annoyed sigh and started assembling her stuff from the table. Emmeline hastily chimed in and in a minute they have gathered and arranged neatly all her Arithmancy parchments and the objects on which she had practiced the spells. Then Em helped Marta get them up to their dormitory and waited while her friend changed in fresh robes.
"No, you're absolutely not skipping breakfast," Em insisted as she urged Marta towards the Great Hall. "Seriously, exhausting and starving yourself is not the way to achieve an Outstanding OWL. And relax, for Merlin's sake! You'll be fine."
As they navigated through the Great Hall and walked past the Ravenclaw table, Marta saw her sister engulfed in a conversation with Jasmine Lovegood. Moira and Jas noticed her too and waved. Marta waved back feebly and let Emmeline drag her to the Gryffindor table.
"Now, have a toast and some fruit," ordered Em, as she disapprovingly observed Marta stare at her empty plate with a blank gaze.
Marta shrugged, then grabbed an apple, took a small bite and began to chew absent-mindedly. The conversation died out for a while and Marta could just distantly hear other people's chattering around the table. However, she was too apprehensive and self-absorbed that she couldn't make out any distinctive words.
"Honestly, Marta, you'll be fine!" Emmeline tried to reason with her friend, who looked like they were facing the dawning of the Judgment Days.
"I am fine," snapped Marta and left the half-eaten apple in her plate. "And I'm going for a walk."
Before Emmeline could stop her or offer to come along, she had pushed her chair and headed straight towards the exit of the Great Hall.
It was a lovely summer day; Marta could not help noticing, even though she wasn't quite fond of summer herself. It was and had always been her sister's season. She appreciated it though, and would have thoroughly enjoyed today's weather, had it not been for the beginning of the OWLs.
The exam week was, in some sense, like Judgment Days to her. Evaluation and Assessment Days more like. They were not just some crappy end of the year exams, which you either passed or you didn't – and most people did without working too hard anyway. Oh, Marta's family would take great pride on the twins' splendid results, and they would both be warmly congratulated. But the one with the best result was to be singled out, it's what their mother did, and every other relative of theirs simply followed suit. Since until now both Marta and Moira had passed their exams flawlessly, it was Moira who got all the first-hand attention. It was always her, because she was the "properly sorted" one. Marta was believed to be the first person in her family for decades, not to be sorted in Ravenclaw. It had come as a great shock to their mother, who claimed to be a direct successor of Rowena Ravenclaw and was fiercely proud of her family's belonging to the Ravenclaw house. "It's in our blood to be the best in everything we do," she would constantly remind them, "and we certainly are the smartest pure-blood family there is." To Mrs. McGonagall, it was all about excellence and anything below this fixed standard was most unwelcome. Since Marta didn't have the belonging to back her up, she went for the excellence part for all it was worth. She did excel in everything, but the problem was, Moira did too. Her academic record was just as flawless and admirable. The fact that she was also a terrific Quidditch player, while Marta claimed to be afraid of heights, didn't help the situation. It was the possibility of getting nine Outstanding OWLs that Marta saw as the big chance to finally shine through. Maybe Moira was not that exceptional, maybe she would get a couple of Exceeding Expectations on her OWLs after all. And, if not, at least they'd be academically equal yet again. Marta could not bear the thought that her results could possibly be worse than her sister's. She would not be able to look at her mother's eyes without reading in them disappointment, or even worse, that dismissive look, which said, "Indeed you couldn't keep up with our standards, but thankfully we have the other one to cover up for your underachievement." Yes, Marta was in Gryffindor and she was even proud of it and perfectly content with the Sorting Hat's choice (although she would rather defenestrate herself than mention this to her mother), and yes, Quidditch was not for her – she had stepped out of it and would willingly let Moira take all the glory, but she was never an underachiever and did not have the slightest intention of letting herself become one. This was the one main trait of her family she truly possessed and she was bound to make her mother acknowledge this. "For all it's worth," Marta thought to herself vaguely and after a half an hour long walk around the castle grounds, headed for the Great Hall were the first OWL was to begin shortly.
Marta found Em right before the beginning of the examination and hugged her tight.
"Look, I'm sorry I stormed out like that, I didn't mean to offend you or anything. I am just really, really nervous. Can you please tell me I'll be fine just one more time, so I feel more confident? Because, you know, you say it like you are really convinced I'll manage it and all?"
"Honestly, Marta, of course you'll manage it!" Emmeline couldn't help but laugh at Marta's utterly distressed expression. "If you don't, who on Earth would? Just… relax please!"
Later, when Marta solemnly faced the Charms theory paper, after a brief panic attack, she recalled the confidence in Emmeline's voice while assuring her that she would be fine, took a deep breath, gripped the quill firmly and steadily began to work her way through the questions.
